Trio set for Wigan recall

Sir Alex Ferguson will rotate his playing staff as Manchester United look to take another significant step towards the Premier League title with victory at Wigan Athletic on Wednesday. The United manager has not yet proclaimed United champions, but with the Reds eight points clear and just six games to go, victory at Wigan would surely remove any lingering doubt. However, the 70-year-old coach is likely to freshen up his side, with Chris Smalling, Tom Cleverley and Nani all seeking a recall at the DW Stadium.

United will make the short trip in buoyant mood after 11 wins in the past 12 Premier League fixtures – not to mention a perfect record against the Latics in the past 14 meetings. Few in the United camp will be in any mood to change that series with a title on the line.

While City will aim to extend the race another week by beating West Bromwich Albion at Eastlands on Wednesday, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that United will secure a 20th domestic title in the coming weekend. That would required City to lose twice, while United must take maximum points over the next four days.

First though United must secure three points at Wigan – a ground that has brought much joy to Reds in recent seasons. Ferguson’s side secured the title at the DW in 2008, while a late Michael Carrick strike brought a dramatic United win a year later.

However, Winger Ashley Young says that his United team-mates must stay focused against relegation-threatened Wigan, with the title not yet officially secured.

“Wigan is a tough place to go to – they’re desperate for points and will want to win in front of their own fans,” said Young, who has been heavily criticised for diving against Queens Park Rangers last week.

“We’ve got to be on our toes and be ready for a tough game. I’m sure if we can show the confidence, desire and winning mentality we’ve shown throughout the season, we’ll get the win. I scored my last goal for Villa against Wigan last season at Villa Park and also scored against them away from home, so I’ve enjoyed some decent results against them. Hopefully there will be another to follow tonight.

“We’re just ticking the games off as we go along and staying focused on each one. You obviously want to play well, but at this stage of the season it’s more about results. You just want the three points from every game. We’re eight points clear at the moment but that could end up meaning nothing if we don’t keep our run going.”

With that in mind Ferguson is likely to freshen up his side, with Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand likely to be rested. Smalling and Cleverley could take the veterans places, while Nani is fit to play despite not making the bench for United’s victory over QPR. Ryan Giggs, Javier Hernández, and Phil Jones are also in contention for a recall.

Meanwhile, Wigan manager Roberto Martinez is again likely to be without striker Hugo Rodallega, who has a knee injury. However, Victor Moses is fit despite suffering a knock against Chelsea last weekend, while , while former Reds David Jones is close to making a return.

Despite United’s outstanding record against Wigan in recent years the Latics have regained some short-term form, securing wins against Liverpool and Stoke City in the past month. Martinez’ side was also desperately unlucky in defeat at Stamford Bridge last weekend, where refereeing decisions went squarely against the relegation threatened Latics.

“The performances we have had at Anfield and Stamford Bridge this season have got rid of that block,” said Martinez, of his players’ renewed confidence in facing leading sides.

“Against Manchester United you have to be perfect and we know now we can be perfect against these sides. Mentally we are ready for that. We are desperate to test ourselves against them and we are hoping for a bit of luck we have not had over the last few weeks or in the last few games against Manchester United.”

But with the Reds sniffing yet another title it will be a major shock if United does not secure a win on Wednesday night, especially with former Latics winger Antonio Valencia in such outstanding form. Valencia was seen as an unlikely United signing when he moved for £14 million nearly three years ago, but has proven a key weapon in the Reds’ title charge this season.

“If you speak with anyone who worked with Antonio here, they will tell you what an extraordinary character he is,” adds Martinez.

“We all know the quality he has got and now he looks a fresh player. I think Antonio looks a real threat. He looks really sharp and he is enjoying his football, at his best level. It seems as though he has been a key man in every fixture he has played and we are all very happy on one hand, because Antonio left a massive stamp on the football club. But on the other hand we hope he has a bit of a day off against us.”

That seems unlikely in a player who is enjoying the most productive spell of an increasingly fine career. Adding another Premier League title into the mix will do little harm for the modest Valencia’s reputation.

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Comments

Cleverly and Carrick have a lot of potential as a midfield two. Don’t know how good Cleverly will prove to be, but he looks more skilful than the other more “mobile” players we’ve had to pair with Carrick in recent seasons – Fletch, Fat Ando, etc. Hopefully he starts today and shows some quality.

I want Cleverley and Nani to get some minutes. Just hope they aren’t too ‘eager’ to impress. Clev did seem that way when he came on last weekend but still played well, and Nani always seems a bit desperate when he’s been left out instead of Valencia.

Why? And where?
He has been injured you know, it’s not like Berba-gate. I suppose there is the Valencia ‘problem’ if you can call it that… but I’d hate to lose another talented, albeit frustrating player unless we can replace him with a talented non-frustrating player.

The rival fans are gonna bitch until the end of time about us getting favourable decisions, but I actually thought the linesman got that spot-on. Caldwell looked like he was clearly restraining de Gea’s movement there.

I don’t want to overhype Cleverly, but I do think he’d be the right choice here, brought on for Hernandez probably. It would give us more bodies in midfield without Rooney being pulled back away from their goal. Plus he’s got pace, neat control, and a good habit of running straight into the danger zone – he’d make Wigan foul him in dangerous areas and pick up cards too. Regardless of Hernandez’s own qualities, don’t see much point on keeping him on if he’s not going to see much ball at all.

“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”

utterly fucking abominable. utterly and completely embarrassing. We’ve fucking let City right back into this now and they’ll fucking smell blood, and will find another yard in their legs. Fucking. Awful. Completely, and utterly, unforgiveable. That shower of complete shite should be embarrassed.

we haven’t played at even half the level we should have played
credit to wigan on their game plan
players need a good kicking after that
believed that the title was done and dusted and against wigan it was going to be a walk in the park
bitters have fuck all to lose now and will go for it
we still have it all to do
fucking bollocks

Everything was wrong. Wrong selection, wrong tactics, missing berbatov, midfield gash, what the fuck was Giggs doing? utterly atrocious. Seriously the worst performance of the season at absolutely the wrong fucking time

i blame all yous talking like its won. Those fucking bellends in the shirts tonight probably believed that fucking hype too.

That’s the worst we’ve played all season, and one of the worst performances from a United side
Not one player could keep the ball
Carrick, Giggs, Welbeck… Rooney was an abomination first half and I’m glad he was subbed

Ben Hulston said:
Everything was wrong. Wrong selection, wrong tactics, missing berbatov, midfield gash, what the fuck was Giggs doing? utterly atrocious. Seriously the worst performance of the season at absolutely the wrong fucking time

i blame all yous talking like its won. Those fucking bellends in the shirts tonight probably believed that fucking hype too.

we have fuck all to offer in terms of experience in hernandez and welbeck
the only player who is out in the cold is berba who can change things around or even just hold the ball up top
and yet the fucking knobends on rant slag him off constantly saying he has no bollox and is only good against the dross
well where the fuck was he today then?
abject bollockless head shoved up each others arses thats what we got tonight
no passion until its too late
5 points doesnt look so rosy – those fannies on here with their chirping about the title- go fuck off and start praying we havent fucked ourselves

I did shut the iPad down and leave but I’m so fucking angry how these fucking cunts can put a show on like that I need to vent! City will beat us come derby day and you’re only talking 2 points, anyone still feel we’re certs?

We ALL know this united team is shite and that if we do win the title it would prob be Fergies greatest but still frustrating as fuck!!

Jones has gone to dog shit.
Giggs finally needs to accept his fate and leave (hopefully as a winner)
Rooney is fucked way off form and his hair transplant needs refunding!
Anyone who thinks Cleverly is the next big thing then you’re deluded! I’d rather give Pogba a shot!
Agree with most Hernandez is tripe he’s on par with Welbeck!!

all this talk about experience of winning the title is trite if our players play like the bunch of cunts today
SAF is fucking livid with that i am pretty sure but where the fuck was the experience from rooney, giggs, carrick, rio and evra?
fucking pissed away tonight

Get a grip! Shit performance was on it’s way. Suck it up and move on. Villa at home followed by Everton at home. SAF said both teams will drop points in the run in and here it is. Still 5 points clear at this point in the season I’ll take that. If the loss mean’t that it took the initiative out of our hands then I’d agree that the title is wide open. But at this point it isn’t. Still needs city to do what they haven’t done all season and thats pull together some convincing away form. They have Norwich and Newcastle away with Newcastle chasing a UCL spot. I think we have enough to see this out.

Commenter said:
Welbeck has been shit for a couple of months but why can’t you just fucking it leave it….

People have been making excuses for City saying it’s their first title challenge and that’s why they’ve tailed off… so why don’t you give the same sympathy to Welbeck / Jones?

Tonight was a horror show but we’ve won 12 our of the last 13 league games haven’t we? Always going to lose at some point.

If we beat Villa on Sunday we’ll win the league. We’re not going to play that shite again.

Agree about Giggs though… his good moments are vast;y outweighed by shocking ones. Scholes should stay, Giggs should leave. And Fergie has really fucked up by isolating Berbatov.

he needs to be recalled for sunday immediately
though i doubt it will happen
fuck knows what he has done to deserve being shat on by saf
welbeck and sweet pea have fuck all experience and it is showing now

“Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini: “The title race is finished because United is a fantastic team and they have a fantastic spirit. I think five points is too much.””

What an odious cunt. Changed his tune hasn’t he… got to be the most transparent mind game ever attempted by a manager. First they are going to win it, then they are not, then they have a chance, now they’ve closed the gap we’re back to ‘United will win it…’.

Commenter said:
Get a grip! Shit performance was on it’s way. Suck it up and move on. Villa at home followed by Everton at home. SAF said both teams will drop points in the run in and here it is. Still 5 points clear at this point in the season I’ll take that. If the loss mean’t that it took the initiative out of our hands then I’d agree that the title is wide open. But at this point it isn’t. Still needs city to do what they haven’t done all season and thats pull together some convincing away form. They have Norwich and Newcastle away with Newcastle chasing a UCL spot. I think we have enough to see this out.

not if we play like cunts as we did tonight
we still have the initiative but yet again doing it the hard way

madredmonkey said:
this might be a massive wake up call for the players, they now know that they have to perform.

If they didn’t know that already then we could end up in massive fucking trouble.

Taken to school by fucking Wigan.

I hope Fergie is ripping their balls off as we speak. Its not a given that city will win the derby, though I suspect they will. If they do, our safety net is worth fuck all given their goal difference advantage.

Big weekend coming up. Time for Scholes and Berba to come back in and provide a bit of composure.

Commenter said:
“Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini: “The title race is finished because United is a fantastic team and they have a fantastic spirit. I think five points is too much.””

What an odious cunt. Changed his tune hasn’t he… got to be the most transparent mind game ever attempted by a manager. First they are going to win it, then they are not, then they have a chance, now they’ve closed the gap we’re back to ‘United will win it…’.

this is from the same twat who said tevez would never play for him again
nothing surprises me about the bitters
SAF giving credit to wigan on the radio saying they are in a false position because they are playing fantastic football
said he was disappointed with the result but it was an off day

On reflection, I don’t think Fergie will be too hard. I think he’ll use it as a reminder to the players for the need to focus and avoid complacency, but there’s a slight misbalance in our squad. We’re in a transitional phase and it’s remarkable that we’re in the position we are. He won’t stick the boot in too hard because he’ll be wary of the arse falling out of the side, particularly for those who have never really been involved in the run in. There’ll be a few harsh reminders, but he won’t want to dwell on it.

I think he may need to call more heavily on the likes of Berba and even Park for the next couple of games. If we beat villa and city drop points at Norwich, we’ll all be much more chilled out again.

A few people said Park… but I remember his performance against Atheltic in the Europa league… probably the worst I’ve ever seen from him.

Martinez Bilbaoed us tonight. Fair play to him. We can’t cope with high energy pressing. All of our players look like conference dross. Fortunately in England only 2 or 3 teams can play that style. Let’s hope we’ve won the title before we play Swansea….

Commenter said:
A few people said Park… but I remember his performance against Atheltic in the Europa league… probably the worst I’ve ever seen from him.
Martinez Bilbaoed us tonight. Fair play to him. We can’t cope with high energy pressing. All of our players look like conference dross. Fortunately in England only 2 or 3 teams can play that style. Let’s hope we’ve won the title before we play Swansea….

Park is alright provided we don’t play him in CM where he is abysmal. Evra had another shocker tonight and I think Park would have been decent cover on the left – or we could have shown more respect to Wigan and played a slightly more defensive line-up (particularly in midfield where we were vulnerable). Giggs in CM was a disaster waiting to happen. Not having someone to overlap with Valencia was a disaster waiting to happen. As was starting with Hernandez. In fact, making too many unnecessary changes and generally being complacent was what cost us.

Where is that South African cunt Justin. I’m in Capetown and wanted to meet up the fucker. Sitting here having a pint watching CR and Real batter Pathetico Madrid.

Ronaldo’s second is nasty as fuck. Anyway, we all know this is the shit united side eclipsed only by a shit EPL standard.

I also cannot see why all the venom against mancini is justified. It was an emphatic win against West Bumwich and were they to bitch slap us again, a two point gap is fuck all. He is still new to the game and dumb cunts comparing him to managerial dinosaurs such as SAF, Hiddink, Wenger – hell even Mourinho are way off the mark. He can win titles and cups – he is not as shit as you all think; he has unfort surrounded himself with a lots of poison.

Sorry but with the amount of money spent and number of players in their squad not winning anything this season is a pretty clear indicator of his quality. You can tell from his interviews he’s a hypocritical idiot.

He’s not the same class as the managers you’ve mentioned.
His recent attempts at mind games are testament to this.

Citeh beat a set of midtable terrible cunts who have nothing to play for. the goals Citeh scored were totally meh, and that bullshit performance from WBA is fuck all.

Wigan have been playing well of late, and it is essential that lessons are learned from this game. The players absolutely have to look at themselves and get up for the next game. Citeh will be, those cunts will be well up for it now. United need to focus on what we’re good at, and how we can smack around cunts in the next few games, and hope that we can get a result at Wastelands.

Agree with that but taggart will just take them on another golf trip or spa to motivate them ffs

What possesses the gobshite to talk to the media about a fucking round of golf and then get pimp slapped by wigan is beyond me. If that was a citeh mind trick it was a shit one. Fool. Just shut the fuck up and bag the cunt.

Why did Fergie change a winning team? Playing against teams fighting relegation at this late in the season is not going to be easy. But we should be able to beat Wigan even if Fergie and Mike Phelan were in the team. The team played as if they were there to throw the game. I put it down to match fixing. Man City are back! Its not over yet.

danniitronix said:
Where is that South African cunt Justin. I’m in Capetown and wanted to meet up the fucker. Sitting here having a pint watching CR and Real batter Pathetico Madrid.

Ronaldo’s second is nasty as fuck. Anyway, we all know this is the shit united side eclipsed only by a shit EPL standard.

I also cannot see why all the venom against mancini is justified. It was an emphatic win against West Bumwich and were they to bitch slap us again, a two point gap is fuck all. He is still new to the game and dumb cunts comparing him to managerial dinosaurs such as SAF, Hiddink, Wenger – hell even Mourinho are way off the mark. He can win titles and cups – he is not as shit as you all think; he has unfort surrounded himself with a lots of poison.

Why didn’t you contact him before you got there? Would have made more sense you thundercunt!!

danniitronix said:
Where is that South African cunt Justin. I’m in Capetown and wanted to meet up the fucker. Sitting here having a pint watching CR and Real batter Pathetico Madrid.

Ronaldo’s second is nasty as fuck. Anyway, we all know this is the shit united side eclipsed only by a shit EPL standard.

I also cannot see why all the venom against mancini is justified. It was an emphatic win against West Bumwich and were they to bitch slap us again, a two point gap is fuck all. He is still new to the game and dumb cunts comparing him to managerial dinosaurs such as SAF, Hiddink, Wenger – hell even Mourinho are way off the mark. He can win titles and cups – he is not as shit as you all think; he has unfort surrounded himself with a lots of poison.

hey you cunt. Im around. PM me and i will give you my number. Oh and lube up the old chocolate starfish before you get here….

and tbf to hernandez and welbeck the way we use both is shite, we never knock it in behind for hernandez runs and weve completely stopped all the quick one touch stuff we did at the start of the season when welbeck and everyone were playing great

Just1n said:
No one was complaining when we won 12 on the trot now after 1 game and its all doom and gloom. FFS!

We may have won 12 in a row, but progressively making it harder work… this result was always looking likely… but against Wigan?

Come on… and Ferguson is being disingenuous saying, they’ve been playing some great football… they’re trying to dodge relegation ffs… that’s not bad luck… they’re shit!

If we’d lost because we peppered their goal, but their keeper had a blinder, or we had a man sent off, but still managed a gritty performance, or some other situation where we could at least take something positive away, then I wouldn’t mind… but the ONLY thing I can see that’s positive from last night is… surely we couldn’t play that shit again!

Alfonso Bedoya said:
We may have won 12 in a row, but progressively making it harder work… this result was always looking likely… but against Wigan?

Come on… and Ferguson is being disingenuous saying, they’ve been playing some great football… they’re trying to dodge relegation ffs… that’s not bad luck… they’re shit!

If we’d lost because we peppered their goal, but their keeper had a blinder, or we had a man sent off, but still managed a gritty performance, or some other situation where we could at least take something positive away, then I wouldn’t mind… but the ONLY thing I can see that’s positive from last night is… surely we couldn’t play that shit again!

I think Fergie’s words of praise are aimed more at his own players in terms or trying to limit any damage to morale.

To a man, they looked like they thought the title was done and dusted. They started the game in completely the wrong mindset and never recovered.

Hopefully it’ll act as a kick up the arse, but a convincing performance and win is needed against Villa. an 8 point gap gave us a bit of contingency for a banana skin, but I never thought we’d need it against Wigan. Sunderland away or Everton at home maybe.

brianofnazareth said:
Why didn’t you contact him before you got there? Would have made more sense you thundercunt!!

Piss off you fucknugget. I just spoke to Justin courtesy of Dave and he does not sound like a badd ass south african rapist which is disappointing. He did however give me a hot tip for a strip club called Mavericks in Cape Town. Cheeky munkey!

danniitronix said:
Piss off you fucknugget. I just spoke to Justin courtesy of Dave and he does not sound like a badd ass south african rapist which is disappointing. He did however give me a hot tip for a strip club called Mavericks in Cape Town. Cheeky munkey!